Guides & Pilots

Scott Newsome
Vice President of Operations

Scott has had a lifetime relationship with the ski/snowboard industry. He grew up in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada where his parents worked for the ski resort. By age 16, Scott was snowboarding professionally, with major media accomplishments. In 1997, he moved to Revelstoke to pursue a guiding profession and began working at family owned Cat Powder Skiing Inc. From there, he became the first certified ACMG assistant guide, executed all on a split snowboard.

Scott represents a new generation of Guide along with a new breed of clientele. He also owns and operates his own guiding business Newsomesnow Quest Inc. His business focuses on avalanche safety training, backcountry touring, providing safety support for large scale media contacts and events in the ski and snowboard industry.

Scott has been a resident of Revelstoke for 14 years where he lives with his wife Kerry, a lifetime local and their two young sons, Sebastian and Kaeson. “After my first season exploring our massive tenure area with film crews clients and friends, I am still in shock of how truly amazing and diverse our terrain is. I have ridden some of the best terrain in my life and it’s all in my back yard”.

Send Scott an email.

Shawn West
Lead Guide
ACMG Certified Ski and Snowboard Guide

Shawn is an ACMG certified ski guide and a professional member of the CAA. He lives in the Slocan Valley of the West Kootenay with his wife Lisa and their daughter Rio. He has been climbing and skiing the mountains of Western Canada since moving to British Columbia when he was 21. Shawn started his career by building and running a remote ski touring lodge in the Valhalla Mountains. Shawn now divides his time in the winter between Heli, cat and ski tour guiding.

He loves snowboarding as well as skiing and will usually ride whatever his guests are on. He is a passionate alpine climber who spends his free time in the summer putting up new routes in the Valhalla Mountains where he lives. Shawn feels that any day in the mountains is a great day and can’t help but share his excitement with the people he skis with.

Craig Ellis
UIAGM/ACMG Mountain Guide

As an internationally certified mountain guide, Craig’s profession has given him the opportunity to work in Europe, New Zealand, Africa and Australia as well as his home mountains of western Canada. He loves to share his passion for alpine activities with other mountain lovers.

In the 20 years he has been guiding, Craig has developed lasting friendships with many of his clients and this has proven to be one of the great benefits of the job. Since he spends over 300 days each year in the high country working, skiing, climbing, and most recently paragliding, if you want to find him, just look up.

Nick Morris
ACMG Ski Guide

Nick Morris was born in Fernie BC and spent all his childhood skiing, touring and hiking the local area with his family. His parents instilled in him at an early age, a love and respect for the mountains.   He has worked in the Ski Industry over the past 20 years, and has been a certified ACMG Ski Guide since 2006.

Additionally, Nick skied with the Canadian National Development Team and competed three times in the World Powder 8 Championships.

Nick takes his guiding responsibilities seriously; he is confident in the field and yet always has a sense of humour and passion for skiing.

Greg Franson
ACMG Ski Guide

Greg joins Eagle Pass Heliskiing this year after having sampled the incredible terrain last season working with a Matchstick Production film crew. He told us, “I have to come back, there’s so much more I haven’t skied yet”. He has been guiding in Canada and the U.S. for the past 8 years working for various operations throughout the industry then decided to start his own ski touring company BlueBird Guides which has had its share of success for the past 3 years.

Greg’s self-claimed asset as a ski guide: “ I’m a skier and I love to shred pow, and can always find good snow”. His skiing and climbing life has taken him to many wild and interesting international locations. He resides in Golden BC during the ski season and calls Whitefish, Montana home in the summer where he spends it with his wife Shell.

Greg Hill
ACMG Assistant Ski Guide

Greg Hill was born in Cowansville Quebec and now calls Revelstoke home. Greg recently climbed and skied 2 million feet in 2010, climbing 71 mountains, over 266 days of touring. Sort of like climbing the CN tower 3+ times a day, every day, all year! Some of his other accomplishments include: first NA to climb and ski 40,000 ft in 24 hours and set a world record of 50,000 ft in 24 hours, first NA to climb and ski Mount Blanc in 1 day (11 hours – 12,000 ft), Whistler Randonnee Race champion 3 years in a row 2002-2004, pioneered the Northern Monashee traverse a 21 day ski traverse where he summited 21 peaks along the way and has planted over 1 million trees. Greg looks forward to skiing with guests this year and sharing tales of his many adventures.

Tim Shenkariuk
CSGA Ski Guide

Tim (Shanks) Shenkariuk has been involved in the ski industry for over 17years and guiding full time since 2004. He holds ski certifications with the CAA, CSGA and CSIA….along with a Bachelors Degree in Commerce.

In his time guiding he has worked for premier Heli and Catskiing operations dedicated to promoting safety first, while also ensuring sure that everyone is enjoying one of the most beautiful ski tenures in BC if not the world.
Since becoming a guide Tim has spent many years building strong personal relationships with his guests. Because of these amazing relationships he has been able to travel and visit many of the friends he has made during the ski season during the summer months in both North America and Europe.

Tim has also been involved in many ski and snowboard film projects which promote the dream which we all have, to seek out the lightest, driest powder, grinning the biggest grins, while enjoying the greatest winter sport on earth.

Ramin Sherkat
ACMG Ski Guide

Ramin is a certified ACMG Ski Guide, and a professional member of the CAA.  Ramin has 12 years winter guiding experience in BC’s Columbia mountains.  He’s worked as a ski touring guide at backcountry ski lodges, and as a mechanized ski guide at several snowcat and heli-ski operations in the BC Interior.

Originally from Deep Cove, Ramin’s home is Nelson, BC, where he lives with his wife and two children. When he’s not busy skiing, Ramin likes to spends his time mountain biking, climbing, and sharing his love of the outdoors with his family.

Daniel Morton
ACMG Assistant Ski Guide

Daniel is an ACMG Assistant Ski Guide who was certified on his Split-Board.  He is also a member with the Canadian Ski Guide Association and a Professional Member with the Canadian Avalanche Association.  Daniel has been Snowboard guiding for 11 years around the West Kootenays just south of Revelstoke.  He has a background in Cat, Heli, Ski Touring and Ski Patrol.  Daniel is as comfortable on his Split-Board as he is on his skis and will generally ride on whatever his guests choose to do.

When not guiding Daniel enjoys Split-Board/ Ski Touring with friends, and exploring new places to ride.  He lives in the town of Slocan with his wife Mary and son Logan.

Daniel is passionate about powder snowboarding and skiing and loves to share the experience with others, setting priority to safety and good times.

Eric Chevalier
CSGA

Eric (a.k.a. Chev) has been working and playing in the mountains of BC for 20 years. He has guided at several heli and cat operations before finding the premier location at Eagle Pass Heli-Skiing.

While being a lover of all things snow in the winter, he is balanced by his passion for sailing and building boats in the summer.

When he’s not on the water or in the boat shop, Chev is busy climbing, hiking and camping with his wife and two daughters, as well as his dog, Zeppelin.

Rob Gallagher
Pilot

Coming from a humble background Rob started his love of helicopters back in the early 1970′s which fostered a love and admiration for these incredible flying machines. Growing up at CMH, Rob thought everybody had a helicopter in their back yard. Needless to say, he has had a passion for flying and skiing ever since.

Rob has been actively flying since 1991 and is one of the founders, and President  for Coldstream Helicopters. He is looking forward to being a part of the team at Eagle Pass and has over 10,000 hours of flying time, with years of extensive Heli-skiing experience.

When he’s not working he loves skiing, wake surfing, Mountain biking, and having lots of fun with his son Quinn and his beautiful wife Candace.

Jake Martin
Pilot

Jake Martin has been a commercial heli pilot since 1999. Jake has over 5,000 hours incident and accident free.  He has extensive experience flying in the mountains of BC, Alberta and Alaska in all types of weather.

Heli-skiing and ski filming take up the bulk of his winters, and in the summers he is either fighting forest fires or doing precision longline work.  Jake has flown for numerous big mountain ski films, and is featured in Matchstick Production’s latest movie, “Attack of La Nina.”

When he’s not working, Jake is at home with his wife Clare in Whistler where he loves to mountain bike, ski, and generally spend as much time in the backcountry as possible.

Ron Klaus
Pilot

Ron Klaus began flying helicopters in 1979, and is currently one of the most experienced helicopter pilots flying in BC.  With over 15000 hours of flight time (including over 1800 hours in the Bell 407) from operations such as Heliskiing, Class D (Human External Load) rescues, logging, seismic exploration, and firefighting, Ron combines superior piloting skills and mountain flying knowledge with an engaging and friendly personality that ensure customers are provided with a safe, fun, and productive day of Heliskiing.

Ron’s past heli-ski experience includes flying for Whistler Heli Skiing and Tyax Lodge Heli Skiing.  He has also been a base pilot for Valley Helicopters in Hope and Merritt, BC since 2002.

Brad Fandrich
Relief Pilot

Brad began his career in the helicopter industry in 1990 as an apprentice engineer with Frontier Helicopters and received his AME license in 1995.  In 1999, Brad completed his commercial helicopter pilot training, and has since gained over 3000 hours of flight time, gained almost exclusively in the mountains of Coastal BC performing operations such as firefighting, avalanche control, mineral exploration, and search and rescue.  Brad has approximately 500 hours of Bell 407 time, and is also a certified Class D (Human External Cargo) pilot.  He is also the Director of Maintenance for Valley Helicopters, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Helicopter Association of Canada.

Ron and Brad will be operating for our Private groups from Sparkling Hill Resort.